Luxury items, particularly watches and shoes and shit. Conspicuously ranking your wealth like that is cringe as fuck. "Ah yes, I see you can afford the DoucheKeeper 2121. That's ok I guess, if you can't afford the DoucheKeeper 2424."
It makes far more sense to just dress well below your "status" imo. Real confidence is being above all that vanity, and real intrigue is keeping people guessing about your "status." You want to know what I do and how much money I do or don't have? Get to know me, and you'll discover none of that shit matters.
keeping people guessing about your "status."
Yeah I’m a fan of this. I dress like I never outgrew the 90’s, haven’t had a haircut since covid, and fly first class a lot. It really bugs some of the snobs up there in the front of the plane.
I’ve never been into fashion in the least. I’m a quiet software dev and don’t talk to people.
I can appreciate people enjoying fashion even if it’s not for me. What I don’t understand are the things that are just regular ass items like a tee shirt, but they printed the name of a brand on it and charged a crazy price for it. Nothing else. No actual design or special manufacturing quality. Just the name of a fashion brand that’s famous for… being the name of a fashion brand that sells clothes that… have their name on it. IS EVERYONE PULLING A PRANK ON ME? WHAT IS EVEN GOING ON?
The kind of watch that says "please mug my rich dumb ass" is all I see. (I've never mugged or stole from anyone, it's just the thought that crosses my mind.)
Kind of like the super sensitive car alarms or home alarms that have a voice that loudly announces it's recording. "Hey, I have valuables worth protecting, just to let you know."
Watches are insane. I've seen ones that cost more than a freaking house. And I'm not talking about ones encrusted in diamonds. Just a regular ass looking watch that cost $250k or more.
Driving a pickup truck as your commute vehicle. The mileage is terrible, and you have reduced visibility in front of the hood. Get a safer and more efficient vehicle. It'll be cheaper!
The way to restrict them to industrial purposes is to require a CDL or at least a higher level license to drive them. It would make sense too, they're objectively more dangerous so why shouldn't the licensing for them be more strict?
I think this might be a potential disconnected between rural and urban folks. A lot of trucks are big and stupid; and unsafe. But an old style reasonable pick up doesn’t need a CDL. It’s very useful for moving things that you don’t want to mess up your interior. During the summer my family takes one with a small motorcycle and inflatable kayaks to raft rivers in Colorado; quite useful. But I get it in the cities; even our reasonable sized sedan felt big having the parallel park when I’ve visited them.
There is some guy who lives somewhat close to me, with a big lifted truck. It's super duper uncommon here. He has the matching stickers like: only gay cops pull me over and how much he enjoys destroying the planet and shit. Every time i see him i can only just point and laugh, because he can't really park anywhere and you can always tell how he struggles with visability.
I agree, 90%. That being said, some people can't afford a car that isn't provided by their construction employer. Some people have hobbies that involve moving things (motorcycles, mountain bikes, wood, etc) and can only afford one car. And I'm sure there are reasons I'm not thinking of.
Most people with pickups around me do not need them, but having owned a small S10 years ago for a similar to above reason, I try to see why they exist, and try not to judge if it's not obvious.
All that being said, Why oh why are they so big now?
You can usually tell the difference, because the tradesperson's truck is full of crap all the time and probably worn out, while the parking lot princess in empty and pristine.
Lifting is also a strong hint, since it makes the bed very hard to reach. I have seen a lifted pickup with a full bed exactly once since I started paying attention.
Also, the people actually using their trucks don't get the ones with 5 "genuine leather" seats, extra legroom, top of the line speakers which they'll definitely blast with the windows down for the whole street to hear, and a bed barely bigger than the compartment on a hatchback.
I see mostly two door trucks at construction sites. Never seen one of those luxury ones with the huge cabin.
Sex
Turns out I'm asexual.
The spicy part is try being asexual yet HOPELESSLY romantic
But aside from THAT -- Brand name clothing.
Most of it doesn't even look good
There was a time the rich dressed decadently, that was conspicuous consumption, but at least it looked pretty and shiny in pictures. Nowadays rich people be buying clothes that look exactly, completely indistinguishable from the discount shop made-in-china artificial-fabric rags everyone else is wearing, but which have a logo printed on them. And that logo is what makes it expensive.
Apple
Streaming like in twitch, podcasts, tiktok, and other "user generated content". I'm not even 40 yet but I really feel like "old man yells at cloud".
Actually, the mere term "content" makes me cringe. You do art? Now it's called content. You are an independent reporter? Now you do content. You like plants? How about turning that into content? Content: you are either consuming it or producing it. Fuck content as a concept. And fuck discoverability algorithms and every clown trying to game them. Fuck social media spoon-feeding brainrot to people. I feel anti-hyped for all that.
Most things. Hype is usually just marketing, at least nowadays. I've seen a lot of hypes come and go, and it's always the same playbook.
I agree, they all appear rather insincere now. But maybe that's just because we've grown older?
I bet parents knew the pokemon card thing was selling cardboard for an insane price based on mostly marketing.
Labubus.
Kids wanting them I get, but the craze among adults for them is baffling to me. And the blind bag mechanic is just a bullshit way to get people to buy more than they actually want in an attempt to collect a full set. It's honestly kind of sad to see so many adults fall for something meant to manipulate children into begging their parents to buy over and over again.
You know something is worth your money when they deliberately obfuscate what you're actually buying.
I still don't know what labubus are and I'm thankful
Most things that people seem to get hyped over really. Not big on buying things. Books are an exception but most people aren't hyped about those
MrBeast videos, like i know his main audience are kids but like why? Compared to other youtubers like Niko, MrBeast is terrible.
Looking through these comments I don't know what half of this stuff is and I don't think I want to.
My wife's freind came over the other day and asked me if I could fix her new glasses because they were crooked, being polite I said I liked them (they're hideous but to each their own), and she responded "thanks they're D and G, they only cost me $700". These were $700 glasses with no additions. No blue light thing, no scratch resistant stuff.
I don't care for that.
Most celebrities. I know its usually manufactured hype, but I still don't understand people falling for it.
Collectible toys. On top of not getting it, I hate it from an environmental perspective and a wasted resources (incl labor) perspective.
Watching sports
NFTs
Any of the vapid and shallow trends. From tiktok “challenges” to the Stanley mug craze. All designed to separate the individual from their money and sense.
Big butts. I mean the ones featured in "Baby Got Back" were ok. But, today, some people are going crazy with it.
Anime profile pictures and wallpapers
Parenthood.
The Chance-Vought F4U Corsair. People fangirl over the reverse gull-wings but I just don't get it. Bending the goddamn wings to fit the the prop on the plan is just a bizarre bandaid for an odd design.
Gimme that P-47 chunky monkey any day
Those hunky water bottles. In general why are there so many water bottle trends?
A good water bottle is a friend for life. We have a dozen in the cupboard:
And then there's my prize, the black widow. Isn't she lovely? Oh, wait, sorry, wrong song.
The one I have now, that has taken me decades to refine, is 1 liter - not too large, so it's easy to carry around, but enough so a couple of refills a day are enough. It has a little handle to facilitate carrying. It's metal, and robust. It's vacuum insulated, so it keeps ice water cold all night. And it has a little sippy spout with a sprung button orifice so that when I knock it over it doesn't leak. It's the perfect water bottle, and it took me a couple decades of trial and error to refine my requirements for a water bottle: the size, the mechanism, the material.
A water bottle that meets all of your specific use case needs really is wonderful; it's a pleasure to use, is convenient, and by its nature encourages you to hydrate. Honestly, it's one is those weirdly and unexpectedly useful things that you'd never expect to have as big an impact as it does, that you find yourself using more than any other single gadget you own.
podcasts, owning an automobile, twitter, following celebrities, being competitive, land ownership, having a degree versus having the knowledge the degree entails, marriage, religion, recycling (beyond that of reducing and reusing), collecting things, fashion, owning the newest of anything once it is released especially for phones and i could come up with more probably but this likely covers at least one thing people who read this are into in one way or another.
Coffee in the morning.
People be losing their minds over an addition.
I've had people outright claim caffeine and coffee aren't addicting. It basically ticks all the boxes, from habit-forming chemical dependency to social reinforcement. Out of addictions to have, it's one of the less harmful ones, but it absolutely can form addiction and people who can't function without it are dependent, even if they can overcome it easily.
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